Christmas like never before

Christmas this year was absolutely spectacular! Together with siblings, parents, uncle and cousins we were a party of eleven for Christmas Eve dinner. Mom prepared a delicious meal complete with rice pudding and Success Cake. As has always been our custom, “the kids” were made to clean the dishes after dinner. This rather torcherous tradition was originally concocted by my parents when my brother and I were small to help give them a break and of course, to heighten the anticipation of opening our presents.
As usual Mike and I recieved a great deal too much. My parents bought us a much needed luggage set. Now we won’t have to borrow theirs anymore. We also recieved many adorable homemade gifts from my cousins, Frida and Alex. We now have a wonderful collection of handmade candles, cards, soaps and marsepan. The next morning Mike and I celebrated his family’s traditional way by opening up presents in the morning (after finishing the necessary numbers of coffee). Since Kim had given Jeff and Theresa a DVD player for Christmas, Mike and I bought them Fellowship and Two Towers extended versions on DVD. Mike got what Mike loves most. Tools. I also bought him the Simpsons 3rd season which we’ve been busy watching all week. Jeff and Theresa got me a candlemaking starter kit and Mike got me a bunch of crafty stuff for making altered books so I’m all set for my new hobbies now. I started my first altered book yesterday.
Mike’s family stayed over the weekend. It was so nice having them. They have always been so easy to get along with. I was obviously nervous about their visit, as any daughter-in-law would be but strangely enough, once they arrived I felt very much at ease. I only cooked two meals, one of which was a flop but luckily I made it after I made the successful meal. I was also really glad to see that Mike got to spend some good quality time with his dad. They spent Friday afternoon building a fence for our backyard. Mike got to use all his new tools, of course.
The only downer was Sunday. We had decided to take a trip up to Woolaroc. On the way up we hit a dog. It was a horrific sight which will always stay with me. We hit hard enough to put a dent in the car. When we drove back to check on it, it had managed to get back on it’s feet again but blood was pouring out of it’s mouth. It’s jaw was broken. We managed to find its owner and by that time the dog had actually managed to make it back too. The owner freaked when she finally realized what had happened. Jeff offered to pay the bill and left her his address. We don’t know whether it survived or not. So, none of us really felt like sight seeing after that. Everyone one was just too upset. I started crying because all I could think about was Chani. I just wanted to get home to her.
New Years was rather uneventful for us. We just went over to mom and dad’s so we could spend time with my cousins. My uncle showed us how to make soap which turned out to be a more complicated and dangerous than I thought it would be.
For the first time in years I have actually made some “New Year resolutions”. I’ve always thought the idea to be rather silly since I seem to be making “new resolutions” year round anyway. We’ll see how it goes.